Bing taps successful black men to mentor Detroit boys

When former Mayor Dave Bing asked Jim Comer to become a mentor in his new program, Comer said, "No."

But when Bing said he was calling on all professional black men in Detroit to step up and change the lives of young black boys, Comer, CEO and president of Southfield-based Comer Holdings, asked the entire senior staff of his company and its subsidiaries, all 30 of them, to step up — on company time.

"I'm 67. I've got more children than my wife gave birth to," the businessman said with a laugh, referring to the dozen young men he has mentored while raising his own two children. "But I love Dave, and when he talked about his vision for this program, it was easy for me to say, 'I'll participate.' "

Comer described the day Bing visited the company and talked about his vision.

"It was so emotional," he said. "Dave just showed up, and guys I thought wouldn't take the time to do it all signed up. Dave issued them a challenge as black men. He said, 'We can't keep blaming everyone else. We have to take responsibility for these kids.'

"And they all stood up."

One of the executives who did was Levi Stubbs III, son of the late Four Tops lead singer and director of corporate development and diversity procurement at Integrated Management & Assembly.

Bing "is someone that I've known probably since I've been about 5 years old," Stubbs, 50, said Wednesday. "He's someone I've looked up to and just admired, and he has mentored me. … So once he left office and decided this was something he was going to do, reach out to young men in Detroit who need some guidance and mentoring, all he had to do was let me know this was something he was going to do, and I wanted to be a part of it."

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Levi Stubbs III, left, and Jim Comer are among the mentors helping Dave Bing’s new BINGO program (Boys Inspired through Nurturing Growth and Opportunities). The program will be launched tonight.(Photo: Ryan Garza, Detroit Free Press)

Eleven months after leaving office, Bing will launch the mentoring program, BINGO (Boys Inspired through Nurturing Growth and Opportunities) at an event tonight that will resemble Draft Day as much as dinner. He will pair mentors with mentees, and all will hear a keynote speech from former NBA star Bob Lanier. Bing, who has spent the past seven months finalizing plans for the program with his former chief of staff, Bob Warfield, said he wanted 50 mentors for the first year of the program. He got his 50 and has a waiting list of more than 40 more. And they came because he issued a challenge that resonated among black professional men across the city: It's our responsibility.

"Our challenge here in the city and in urban America is that black men talk a good game and don't do anything," Bing said in an interview. "When you really look at who supports our kids, my wife and I have been with Cornerstone for 11 years, the Nevada campus. Ninety-eight percent of the mentors are white. Most are women. White women are No. 1. White men are No. 2. Black women are No. 3. Black men are No. 4. So it's time for us to stand up.

"We give all this lip service to the problems and what we need to do for our boys, but when it comes time to help out and get engaged, it's 'Well, I'm too busy.' And you wonder why they're doing the things that they're doing. Somebody helped us get where we are in life, and it's time for us to give back. I don't care how busy you are. I don't care how successful you are, how much money you've got, you've got to give time now."

The fire that some people felt had left Bing in the waning days of his term clearly still burns in his belly. He said he's all in on a program that differs from many others in a big way.

He sought — and continues to seek — the most successful black men in southeast Michigan to work with the 12- to 18-year-old students from Cody and East English Village high schools and MacKenzie and Marcus Garvey middle schools. DPS emergency manager Jack Martin identified the students. Bing went around town and told black men what they needed to do: And they're doing it.

That includes men like Stubbs — and Comer.

"They become your family members," he said of the young men he has mentored, including three in college. "Once you embrace them, you can't help but do for them. Someone had to help me. That's the way I look at it. So I encourage my workers to give back. They mentor the boys and I mentor them. It's a team concept where we all take responsibility for each other. When you can't make it, you call me and I'll go visit your mentee. They'll never miss a meeting. They'll always have someone. All the young guys that we bring in, we're going to stay with them, and we're doing it for Dave."

For more information about the B.I.N.G.O. Mentoring Program and the Bing Institute, please contact 313-392-7016 or 151 W. Jefferson Avenue, Suite 512, Detroit, 48226